Chapter Text
“ Skylene,” Conner started pleasantly, face stretched into his most innocent smile. “How are you?”
The fairy jumped, looking slightly spooked as she turned to face him. “Oh, hello Conner,” She said airily. Nervously, she pulled her fingers through her waterfall of hair.
Yeah, you’d better be nervous, Conner thought. That’s what you get for un-Godmothering my sister, jerk.
Conner looked around the garden he’d happened upon Skylene in. (Re: he’d looked specifically for her for like, ten minutes.) Alex would’ve liked it, probably. Mom definitely would. (God, he missed his mom.) “It’s nice in here,” He said.
Skylene smiled, though it had a nervous edge. “It is. I grew everything myself,” She said. She lightly touched a petal of one of the bluer flowers, smile softening. “This garden was my project. One of the first things I had that was… just for me. I’m very proud of it.”
“You should be,” He told her, actually meaning it. It made him feel a little bad about what he was going to do next. Only a little.
“My mom would love it.” He sighed, doing his best impression of when Alex got less than an A on something. (That was a level of remorse he had yet to see be replicated anywhere else.) “Man, I’ll miss her.”
The fairy’s smile turned into a frown. “What do you mean?”
Conner winced, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, with all this Masked Man stuff and Alex being un-Godmothered, it’ll probably be a while until I see her again,” He said. He added quietly, “If at all.”
Skylene’s eyes widened.
He tilted his head toward the ceiling but watched her out of the corner of his eye. He nodded resolutely. “Yup. She’ll probably be an old lady by the time I get back. Probably won’t even remember who I am. I’ll be like ‘mom it’s me, your son Conner’ and she’ll be like ‘who are you? Where am I? Why am I eating raisins?’” He sighed again, blinking tears into his eyes. “I feel so misguided right now. I wish some tall, blue, magical adult somewhere would help me sort out my feelings.”
Skylene put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry you’re going through this, Conner. I know what it’s like to be caught in the middle with no help,” She said and she sounded so sincere that Conner felt even worse about what he was doing. But Alex’s safety came way before anyone else’s feelings and if Skylene really was being sincere then she’d get that. “I’ll help you with anything you need, Conner. Just ask.”
Conner pulled himself out of his head and sniffled, looking up at the fairy with the most pitiful expression he could muster. “Promise?”
Skylene smiled at him and gone was the nervous edge and the caution she’d had at the beginning of their conversation. “I promise,” She said.
Conner smiled back at her. “Thanks, Skylene.”
An interesting fact Conner had coincidentally learned earlier: fairies are bound by their promises.
He’d been perusing a bookshelf in Grandma’s room, trying to think of anything he could do to help Alex or make it up to her for not backing her up when she’d really needed it.
(He felt really bad. He should’ve been there for her, instead of accidentally affirming the stupid decision the Fairy Council was so set on. Un-Godmothering someone? What even was that? She was just Godmothered! And she was fourteen. Didn’t they make dumb mistakes when they were fourteen?)
By some twist of fate, the book he’d leaned over to pick up from the floor was Terry Tweed’s Observations On Fairies, a mostly complete guide to the sparkly jerks who ran this place. As he’d flipped through the pages, absorbing information as quickly as he could, he started making plans. When he'd found the passage that began with “When a fairy breaks a promise, they're infected with a sickness which has no physical source” a solid plan gripped his mind like an Aipom might (if he was unlucky enough).
A completely foolproof, mostly morally grey plan that would get Alex un-un-Godmothered and catch the Masked Man.
He was kinda still workshopping it, but it went a little something like this:
Step 1: Get a fairy to promise him something, preferably to like, help him or give up information.
Step 2: Use the promise to figure out who arrested the Masked Man. (He'd thought about asking to have Alex re-Godmothered, but that wouldn't really do anything when she'd disappeared and it kind of seemed like maybe she needed a break from that right now anyway.)
Step 3: Track down the arresting officer and ask them who the Masked Man really is.
Step 4: Uhhhh something something magic spell they win.
He'd figure out the last step later.
“Could I use that promise now?” Conner asked.
Skylene's smile faltered, just a bit. “If you really need it.”
Oh, I do, Conner thought. “It would really help me if you told me who arrested the Masked Man and put him in Pinocchio Prison.”
Skylene paled, eyes wide like flying saucers. “You– I can't–,” She swallowed. “I can't answer that question.”
“Look, Skylene,” Conner said. “I don't want you to get sick, you don't want you to get sick, so just answer the question.”
“How did you–”
“I did some reading. If you guys don't want people to know about the promises thing, you should hide that book better,” Conner told her. “But, Skylene, come on. I need to know. For Alex.”
Skylene looked over her shoulder, picking at the fingers of her gloves. She pursed her lips, glancing around the garden anxiously.
“It… it was Sir Lampton,” She said after a moment.
“ Sir Lampton? Are you sure?” Conner asked, brow furrowing. Sir Lampton? If it was Sir Lampton, wouldn't he have said something? Instead of letting Alex literally lose her mind?
Skylene nodded. “Yes, I remember he was so distraught when it happened.”
“What–”
“Oh, I really can't say, Conner,” Skylene said, visibly distressed. “I've told you too much already.”
Before Conner could get another word in, she disappeared in a fine, sparkly mist, leaving him damp and confused.
He frowned, wiping water from his forehead.
Sir Lampton was distraught? Why would he be upset about the arrest? And why couldn't Skylene tell him about it? Did that mean the Fairy Council knew who the Masked Man was but were playing dumb? Why?
The facts really weren't lining up in a way Conner could say he particularly liked.
Whatever.
Conner had to find a soldier he was going to shake the truth out of or die trying.